Beehive State

I made it back to my home state. Virginia trembled at my absence. Literally.
Jeremy flew out to drive back with me. I think we made it in good time.

I finally found a place to live, I have an interview for a campus job on Thursday. Everything seems to be neatly falling into place. 

For the past 6 years of my life, I haven't lived in one city for more than 8 months. I am a little wary of graduation, since I will now be expected to act like a grown-up. Aren't grown-ups supposed to stay put, at least most of the time? I don't know if I can put my ramblin' ways to rest. We shall see.

Speaking of ramblin'. I love roadtrips. I love driving. They are not a burden to me. As long as you are in good company there can be hours of delightful banter, meaningful music, audio-books and trashy magazines. Who doesn't want that?

I was a little anxious at the start of this trip since we didn't adequately stock up on audio supplies. But Jeremy spotted an outlet mall off the highway, and the book store was going out of buisness (bad for the written word, good for us). Most of the books on CD were just a few dollars. We listened to:

A War of Gifts: An Ender Story - Orson Scott Card
     Not great, but not bad. I wish we could have found Ender's Game instead. I loooooved that book.

Foreskin's Lament - Shalom Auslander
     You have heard this man on This American Life. His stories are great. Funny poignant and painful. I found that I could only handle the vignettes from his life in small doses. He narrates his own book. Brilliant.

I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
      A favorite. The story is so charming.

Jeremy and I run on the same wavelength. Every hour or so, we would search the radio for a strong NPR signal. When we reached Pittsburgh, we found both NPR and an independent music station. Thanks to them, I found this music:







Tomorrow, I'm going back to Provo for the first time in 4 months.
...
Pray for me.

Mini-Me

WODdling soundtrack: Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Laila had a play date with a friends, so it was just Ava and I for most of the day. WOOOHOOOO! We went to "the club," planning to spend the whole day there. I thought it would be a good chance for her to branch out without her sister; meet some new kids. There were perfect candidates playing in the water when we arrived. They looked about 4 years old, friendly and happy, they were there with their nannies too. She shyly wandered to the side a the pool. A cute red-headed girl with goggles bobbed over. "Hi!" she said. "I'm Maddie! Do you want to play with me?".

YES!
The golden words!

Ava's response?
"No thank you."

WHAT?!?!

You see, when we've gone to the park, the girls say that nobody wants to play with them. But I know that's not true. Kids try and play with them, but the girls sort of shy away. They are perfectly content playing on their own; they rarely let other kids into their little world.

What really drives me crazy?
Ava is just like me.

We get exactly what we want, the perfect situation laid out in front of us, and we simply say, "No".
It's a big problem.
I've talked about this before.
Sometimes it seems easier to stay by ourselves instead of letting someone else in to our little worlds, but that is no way to live.

So what should I do when I see a mini-me in the making?
I asked her why she didn't want to play with Maddie (she didn't know). I tried to coach her in things she could say, games she could play, to help her make friends (she was ambivalent). Maddie was a more experienced swimmer than her, it seemed to hard.

I don't know if I helped her, but she had a fun day regardless. Maybe next time she'll be able to play with the cool kids.

On another note, kids books are great.
I'm trying to train these kids to be good readers; we go to the library a couple times a week. It pains me every time when Laila picks out these sorts of books:

I actually try to pick out a couple "quality", age-appropriate books like this one:

and this one:

(As you can see, I've tried to tell the girls to look for books with seals on them. "That means they are good authors!" I say. Then Laila will pick up the latest in the tween-drama-gossipy-mean-girls book and say "My friends tells me that these are by a really good author!". Mmmmmm not quite.)

Maybe these books don't have as much flash as the other ones, but their brains will thank them for it later. It's sad to see books being dumbed down. Luckily, Ava will let me pick out and read pretty much anything to her.

So we read this today: 

The story and the illustrations are quite charming.

kids kids kids.

August Mix: Get Gone

I am leaving here in 20 days. I am both happy and sad.
This is a perfect mix for that, for leaving.
It has a bit of old stuff. Maybe you will remember it from when we used to listen to it over and over in high school.
And some new stuff, that I guess will become old eventually.

Isn't the end of SUMMER the best/worst?

1. You Are a Tourist - Death Cab For Cutie
2. Young Blood - The Naked And Famous
3. The Fear of Charlie Sunrise - Baby Monster
4. Manners - Icona Pop
5. Up All Night - Alex Clare
6. Seventeen Years - Ratatat
7. Hustle (Cillo Remix) - Tunng
8. Dead Hearts (LightsoverLA Remix) - Stars
9. Cliquot - Beirut
10. Final Form - Everything Everything
11. Video Games - Lana Del Rey
12. Hey Ya (Acoustic) - Obadiah Parker
13. Home  - Mumford & Sons
14. Honolulu - Last Dinosaurs
15. Pop Culture (Live Mashup) - Madeon
16. Ulysses - Mason Jennings
17. I Can See The Pines Are Dancing - A.A. Bondy

Notes:
1. Oh Deathcab. Transatlanticism was one of my top 5 albums of 2004 fer sure. It's good to hear from them again.
4. Remember that Chiddy Bang track from last month? This is the song that the sample was from. It is great.
5. HOTTTTTTTTTTT
6. I've been rapping for about sevteen years okay? 
I don't write my stuff anymore I just kick it from my head you know what I'm sayin? 
I can do that.
No disrespect but that's how I am.
10. Every bit of this song is perfect. 
11. LISTEN TO THIS
15. "These are 39 of my favorite songs". What a cutie. This guy is 17... can you believe it!?!? All y'all 
know I love J-Biebs, but he has got nothing on this kids when it comes to talent. just AWESOME.
17. This song perfectly captures the end of summer, don't you think? 


Toodles.